Two days after he visited South Carolina, York County Democrats took a straw poll Sunday and Dodd won 28 percent of the approximately 100 people voting. Runnerup was Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois at 24 percent, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York at 18 percent; 2004 vice presidential nominee John Edwards at 11 percent and Delaware Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. at 5.5 percent. Former Vice President Al Gore, running as a write-in, got 8 percent. (Lightman)
The reason for Dodd’s victory was that he actually went to York County and met with the people there. However, it is telling, as the article says, that people wanted to vote for him once they had met him. Dodd does well with this style of campaigning.
It’s hard to do it on a national scale, of course. But remember that Bill Clinton came out of nowhere to place second in New Hampshire in 1992–mainly because he went out and met the people who would vote for him.
Not to say that Dodd is Bill Clinton, or that he doesn’t have Olympus Mons in front of him to climb. But this result should be a bright spot for a campaign that has had relatively few of them so far.
Source
Lightman, David. “Dodd Makes Impression In South Carolina.” Hartford Courant 5 March, 2007.
13 responses so far ↓
Dodd’s showing should be no surprise to those who have actually met him. He is an accomplished politician who has the Clintonesque grip and grin that gives you a warm, down-to-earth feeling about the guy. Where Hillary prints banners saying she wants to have a conversation with you, Dodd gives a speech to hundreds of supporters and they feel like they are having a personal conversation with him. He looks Presidential, has the international experience, has a base of support from his time at the DNC, knows how to raise money, is incredibly intelligent and well-spoken about the topic du jour, has an impressive resume of legislative accomplishments that have positively shaped America today, and he’s got the potential to tap a large activist community in Connecticut to go help him in NH.
Unfortunately for Dodd, the living room politics of New Hampshire and Iowa that Clinton was able to capitalize on in 1991-92 is on its last legs. WMUR-NH is already running commercial after commercial for presidential wannabes and the small-state, personal retail politics has lost out to mega media buys and sound-byte politics of the 24-hour news cycle.
I like Dodd a lot and feel he has a fantastic shot, but it’s filled with a bunch of ‘ifs.’ IF he doesn’t get sucked into the Democratic Washington consultant pit-fall. IF he remains stately and presidential and stays above the petty politics plaguing Obama and Hillary now. IF too many states don’t move their primaries, making this a national election too early. IF he runs a solid strategic primary plan wherein he does not try to win all states. IF Biden is seen as too polarizing to win and drops out early. I could go on, but there are a lot of ‘ifs’ for every candidate at this point.
Please….Dodd has no chance, zero…..nada, zilch. he cant beat Obama, Clinton or Edwards….isnt going to happen.
Except that Bill Clinton had two attributes that Dodd does not: (1) he was a Governor, and (2) he was from the South. Then again, both Dodd and Clinton are womanizers!
Those who don’t like Dodd would do better to diss his policies and politics rather than his abilities as a politician. It amazes me that here in CT where he gets elected over and over agin that anyone would do or think otherwise.
And Teddy Kennedy says to Chris Dodd: “Let’s have a waitress sandwich!”
And Laura Bush says to Dubya “it’s me or Jim Beam”
And the Entire Republican Party says “stop your bitching you wounded little crybabies, your hurting our Comander in Chif” to the troops they made believe they gave a shit about.
Reality Bites. Don’t it?
Nice language. Does reality bite? No, not at all. Perhaps you believe that reality bites …
In a few years Ann Coulter will be calling these same wounded soldiers “faggots” and “Parasites” and telling them they should “pull themselves up by their own bootstraps” just like Republicans did to Vietnam Vets during Reagans Reign.
It’s all so predictable.
Again, nice language. You seem like a very bitter person …
he’s hopeless, n_c…best to roll your eyes and let it go
Actually, that’s probably a good idea in general — for ctkeith’s posts. Every time that I see one of his posts, I’ll try to just not even read it …
Keith please learn how to spell before you post. I can see you weren’t over burdened with an abundance of schooling.
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